Amaterasu
Amaterasu (天照), nicknamed Ammy by Issun, is the main protagonist of Okami. She is also known by villagers in her past life as Shiranui. Amaterasu is the Ōkami, the Sun God to all of Nippon, and the "origin of all that is good and mother to us all". Amaterasu doesn't talk, but she barks every time she attacks in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. Backstory Amaterasu originally existed in the Celestial Plain, ruling over the Celestials and the mortal world as a protector deity. Alongside Waka, she battled Orochi, the eight-headed serpent who attacked and wreaked havoc upon the Celestial Plain. Waka told Amaterasu that Orochi could only be defeated by the Chosen One, a human named Nagi. Hearing this, she dragged Orochi down to the human world to wait for Nagi's birth. Meanwhile, Waka and the remaining Celestials fled into the Ark of Yamato, where all except Waka perished to an ambush of demons led by Yami, the ruler of darkness. With each passing year, Orochi dined on another maiden from Kamiki Village on the annual festival. Before every festival, Amaterasu appeared around the village in the form of a white wolf. The villagers assumed her to be Orochi's familiar, naming her Shiranui. Eventually, Nagi fought Orochi, and through his combined efforts with Shiranui, he was able to seal Orochi away. Shiranui, however, died from poisoned wounds inflicted during the battle. Taken back to the village, she was hailed as a hero, and a statue was built in her honor. However, after her death, her Celestial Brush powers had scattered, leaving her drastically weakened, with only her original ability, Sunrise. Furthermore, the peoples' faith in the gods had dwindled, leaving her even weaker. The main story of the game begins one hundred years after Shiranui's death. When Nagi's descendant, Susano, removes the sword Tsukuyomi that had sealed Orochi away, Orochi wastes no time in taking over Nippon once again. Sakuya, the wood sprite, revived Amaterasu within the statue of Shiranui, giving her the Reflector Divine Retribution. Together with Issun, a loudmouth Poncle found within Sakuya's robe, Amaterasu sets off to revive the Guardian Saplings scattered across Nippon and restore the lands to their original beauty and remove evil's hold. Throughout her journey, Amaterasu is reunited with many of her powers, and regains people's faith in the form of Praise. Eventually, Amaterasu, with the help of Susano, manages to destroy Orochi. She then continues her journey through Nippon, regaining more of her brush techniques, and further restoring people's faith and the lands. Finally, she finds herself in Kamui at the Ark of Yamato. Boarding it with Waka, she finds herself fighting previously defeated bosses, including Orochi. Then, she finally faces off against her archenemy, Yami. With the aid of all the people she met in the form of prayers, her power is fully restored and she is able to vanquish him. She and Waka then return to the Celestial Plain to restore it, and finally bring peace and harmony back to the world. Personality Amaterasu, in keeping with her wolf nature, is gentle, loving and utterly loyal to her friends (as shown when she wept with great sorrow in her refusal to let Issun go when she boarded the ark even though she knew well he could not go with her) but is crushing and relentless towards those with evil in their hearts. She at times falls asleep when people have long talks with her and so she may be easily bored. Perhaps due to Issun's encouragement of "Leap before you think.", she may have become more brash when dealing with certain situations. Gameplay To master Amaterasu, you'll need to learn how to use all three of her weapons and their techniques, and seamlessly transition to the correct weapon for the situation at hand. Amaterasu is one of the most versatile characters in the game. She can play any situation; rush down, run away, keep away, punishing, and has some of the best assists in the game as well. Much of the game's keepaway doesn't work on her, because she can simply crouch underneath any threat. Players looking for a jack of all trades, master of all trades character will be at home with Amaterasu, so long as they can handle having a very low amount of health. When used as a rushdown character, Amaterasu can use her high speed and small hit-box to close with the opponent and unleash fast combos. She also works well at range with her Devout Beads, as they give her long reach, quick, low-damage combinations, and lock the opponent into a standstill, allowing you to chain into a with other attacks. Using her Tundra Beads ability also provides some lock down and anti-air game. Special Attacks *'Weapon Change:' She can switch between her level 1 divine instruments (the first of each type she receives in Okami), Divine Retribution (Solar Flare), Tsumugari (Thunder Edge), or Devout Beads (Tundra Beads). *'Vine Brush: '''Air dash'. She grabs a flower that appears, which allows her to move quickly to the other side. *'''Head Charge: Headbutts the enemy. Light and medium versions strike horizontally and diagonally while heavy version knocks down. *'Galestorm': Creates a strong wind that knocks the enemy back. *'Power Slash': A brush technique that creates a sheet of paper that slowly floats down. When an opponent comes in contact with it, they are damaged. *'Solar Flare '(Divine Retribution equipped): Reflects the opponent's attacks. Light and medium versions counterattack with a pile driver attack while the heavy version reflects projectiles. *'Thunder Edge '(Tsumugari equipped): A lightning quick slash with the Thunder Edge. Light version slashes horizontally, medium version hits diagonally, and heavy version slashes vertically. *'Glaive Chop '(Tsumugari equipped): Unleashes a powerful, electrically charged slash downwards for multiple hits. *'Cold Star (Devout Beads equipped): '''She shoots a barrage of ice at her opponent using her Tundra Beads while the attack takes place. Assist Attacks Hyper Combos *'Okami Shuffle (Level 1):' Amaterasu activates a series of divine brush techniques. First is Firestorm which does a single hit, then follows up with multiple hit Icestorm, then ends it with multiple hitting Thunderbolt. The last attack will make the opponent fall to the ground. *'Vale of Mist (Level 1):' As she howls she releases a purple mist that enshrouds the entire field. This causes the opponents movements to be slowed down. The opponent movement,duration of hitstun and even their attack animation is affected. *'Divine Instruments (Level 3):' Unleashes a devastating combo with the Solar Flare, Tundra Beads, and the Thunder Edge. Changes in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 * Decreased hit stun time on all normal attacks (L,M,H). * Decreased hit box size of M, cr.M. * Increased active frames of cr.M. * Stance change is possible in mid-air. * Increased active frames of charged Thunder Edge. * Sword portion of Glaive Chop causes knockdown. * Decreased untechable time of Assist β (Cold Star). * Additional hits can be added to Divine Instruments through rapid button presses. Theme Song thumb|left|300px| Amaterasu's theme song in Marvel vs Capcom 3 is a dance-remix of The Sun Rises from the original '''Okami.' Trailer thumb|300px|left Trivia *Amaterasu was confirmed on July 21, 2010 alongside Thor. *Her Marvel counterpart appears to be Thor, as they were announced as playable characters at roughly the same time, rather fitting, considering that they're both benevolent gods who wield elemental powers (Amaterasu via the Celestial Brush, Thor via Mjolnir). However, their playstyles are very polar: Ammy focuses on quick combos ensuring her effectiveness as a rushdown, whereas Thor deals great damage at every hit, though is somewhat slower than other characters. Also, Thor is arguably the most talkative character in MVC3, whereas Amaterasu has no dialogue at all. The Celestial Brush is also a part of Amaterasu's being as she always has possesion of it as long as she has ink for her brush strokes, while Thor must carry and wield Mjoinir to use it. *Aside from the octopuslike Shuma-Gorath and Rocket Racoon, Amaterasu is the only other playable character that isn't humanoid (e.g. Celestial Wolf). *Judging by her character, Amaterasu joins the Lawful Good axis, existing as a benevolent goddess. *Her alternate costumes resemble three of the Satomi Canine Warriors from Okami: Gi (Take), Chu (Hayabusa) and Jin (Ume). *X-23 has a character-specific Victory Quote for Ammy, wherein she makes a reference to Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair), a mutant that can change between three forms (those being that of a human, a wolf, and one inbetween the first two) specifically asking Amaterasu if the two are related. *In Amaterasu's ending, she is seen in Marvel's Savage Land, with Issun complaining about wanting to take a quicker way out. She is seen fighting alongside Ka-Zar, Shana, and Zabu against a dinosaur (both the dialogue in this scene and Amaterasu's moveset, imply that her ending takes place sometime before she boarded the Ark of Yamato, but after she aquired the Tundra Beads). *When being tagged in, Amaterasu is referred to by name (or at least part of it) the least out of all the characters. Instead, characters tend to refer to her as "dog." Hulk refers to her as "Dog", Felicia refers to her as "Puppy", and Trish refers to her as "Here Pooch". *Interestingly, Akuma calls Amaterasu (and the other non-humanoids) "Devil" despite her being what many would consider the complete opposite of such (although in Okami, the Blockhead clan refered to her as the "White Demon of Death" after she defeated some of them). *Issun's after-match quote to Akuma makes a reference to a optional event in the original Okami, where visiting Mrs. Orange during the night would trigger a scene where she bakes Cherry Cakes by striking a pose similar to Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu (including the visual and sound effects). *Amaterasu's right (or left depending on direction facing) + H attack (and then repeatedly pressing H) performs her basic combo in Okami for each weapon. The Devout Beads and Tsumugari even feature their in-game abilities which are the ability to hit multiple times with a single strike and the ability to charge each attack, respectively. *Amaterasu does not have a voice actor (instead emmiting various barks/howls/etc.), but in the voice gallery, Amaterasu's "dialogue" is labeled as Japanese. *She is the first playable character in the series that is both female, and non-humanoid. *All of Phoenix Wright's Alternate costume settings involves Missile (a dog belonging to Detective Gumshoe from the Ace Attorney series) resembling all of her alternate colors, although the size is closer to that of her son Chibiterasu, from Okamiden. *Her DLC costume is a reference to Jon Talbain from "Darkstalkers". *She has no Victory Pose other than her standard one, involving her sitting down, yawning and then lying down, while Issun bounces around her. This is likely a reference to what happens in Okami when the player leaves her stationary for too long (although in that case, when she's lying down, she sleeps until the player moves her with the controller). *One of her standard after-match quotes in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 indirectly mentions Chibiterasu (her son, who was the main character in Okamiden). Artwork Amaterasu_MvsC3-FTW.PNG|Original Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Artwork Amaterasu,_Ryu,_Chun_Li,_Serverbots_and_Issun-MvC3.PNG|Issun, Amaterasu's bug-sized friend, is the glowing green orb. 4819001689_e8b0e3d566_b.jpg|Galestorm, her throwing move. 4819001745_5924929cdf_b.jpg|Tundra Beads' Cold Star. MARVEL VS. CAPCOM 3 - Amaterasu vs.jpg|Vine Brush Air Dash. Colors15.jpg|Amaterasu's alternate colors in UMvC3 amaterasu3.png|Amaterasu's move set d383076019a785d439453345322396e5.jpg|Jon Talbain DLC Costume Also See Amaterasu's moves in Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds Amaterasu's moves in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Category:Characters Category:Capcom Characters Category:MvC3 Characters Category:Female Characters Category:Good Alignment Category:Amaterasu Category:Rushdown Characters Category:UMvC3 Characters Category:Battery Characters